In reply to maschinenbau :
Has the car been found yet?
In reply to maschinenbau :
Has the car been found yet?
In reply to Stampie :
Yes, the tow truck just took it to their lot for the night, but delivered it to the dealer today.
Sonic said:Well, on the bright side it will be hard for the dealer to say there is nothing wrong now.
Well, to be fair, they didn't say there was nothing wrong, just that it wasn't observable.
Looks like it got observable. Assuming that this is not a new problem. (Like, if it had been cooked before, it could be drinking a little coolant when cold. I've seen head gaskets leak coolant but seal combustion)
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Sonic said:Well, on the bright side it will be hard for the dealer to say there is nothing wrong now.
Well, to be fair, they didn't say there was nothing wrong, just that it wasn't observable.
Looks like it got observable. Assuming that this is not a new problem. (Like, if it had been cooked before, it could be drinking a little coolant when cold. I've seen head gaskets leak coolant but seal combustion)
That's a good point. Maybe it overheated bad when the first water pump failed.
Update: they started digging into it and they agree the water pump is at fault. They also tried to pin the coolant leaking issue on the defective pump, though I retorted we have no way of knowing that for sure. They got the parts ordered yesterday, including timing belt, and all appear to be in stock at the local warehouse, so they think (but not promised) it should be a few more days for them to turn it around. This is much better than the 2-3 weeks I was expecting based on the Fiat forum stories of waiting on parts from Italy. One step at a time.
Happy news!
Man, that's gotta be the only story from the last six months of something being unexpectedly IN stock.
dps214 said:Man, that's gotta be the only story from the last six months of something being unexpectedly IN stock.
They must know to keep these Fiat water pumps handy, and a LOT of them!
In reply to maschinenbau :
For what, all three of 124s sold in the US?
Honda dealership only had three VCM-era J35 piston ring sets in stock...
Pete. (l33t FS) said:In reply to maschinenbau :
For what, all three of 124s sold in the US?
I saw the other 2 at the dealer service department last time. Maybe that's a bad sign.
The same engine was used in the Jeep Renegade and Dodge Dart. I have to imagine most parts for the engine would be available.
Edit: The OPs car had 10k miles when he bought it and it has a few more now. That's crazy low durability...
In reply to Snrub :
Everyone on the Spider forum keeps saying that - this engine is used in so many other cars! Can't be that bad! But when you look at the trims and models, it's really only the 500 Abarth, 124 Spider, Renegade MANUAL trans only ('14-'18 in NA), and some select trims of the Dart. Vast majority of the Fiat/Chrysler mashup cars like the Renegade and Dart got the 2.4 Tigershark. So I really don't think this engine is quite as common as everyone may think.
Even on a common engine, you can get weird little burps in reliability. 1996 Miatas have an oil pressure relief plunger that can stick open, even though it's the exact same pump used from 1994-00. 1999 Miatas had real problems with thrust bearings for a while. So I can see how a variant of a "common" engine or a range of production could have problems that other related engines do not.
Reasonable points, I'm sure they sold upwards of 5 manual renegades. Just thinking out loud - if the engines were so uncommon, why did they manufacturer them in the US?
Rock auto has multiple water pump options available. If the OEM design is a dumpster fire, using a different part ($20-42) seems like a possible solution.
I know you weren't going to mod this car, but Ho Chi Mama...
In reply to OldGray320i :
YES. I love the non-Abarth front end so much better. Less angry plastic, more color. Goodwin's Spider is quite the monster.
The dealer has all the parts, just waiting on one of the Fiat techs to work their way to it. 120 days of ownership, 12 days total at dealership.
maschinenbau said:In reply to OldGray320i :
YES. I love the non-Abarth front end so much better. Less angry plastic, more color. Goodwin's Spider is quite the monster.
The dealer has all the parts, just waiting on one of the Fiat techs to work their way to it. 120 days of ownership, 12 days total at dealership.
Ouch. I hope this thing works out - I know you were thinking of moving on from it. The downtime just shouldn't be....
Bummer, dude. Unfortunately, your name fits the acronym: Fix It Again, Travis . . .
On a related note, this reminds me of when a bought a lightly used (probably all track miles) SVT Focus back in '04. In the year or so I could stand, I put at least as many miles on a rental car; fortunately, the SVT warranty covered the rental. I had some nice rentals, then realized I need a truck, and perhaps something brand-new.
Brand-new wound up being a 2005 Nissan Frontier 4x4, with manual V6. This lasted about two months, most of which passed with me in a rental car (truck was an astounding POS). The dealer got so tired of me hanging around with a pissed-off face that they threw me some keys to a new 350z. It felt like heaven, were heaven applying joyful violence to a sports car you did not own.
Within a week or so, I found myself with a slightly used '03 350z (in 2005). It went pretty well, with minimal trips to the dealer (generally only for recalls, which netted a new rear end and some new tires).
Best of luck going forward. Oh, and you still need to give me a guided tour of the velodrome . . .
Update: Tony finally fixed it! Going to pick it up tomorrow. Turns out it was NOT the water pump, but rather a freeze plug on the engine block right next to the pump that popped out. This was immediately apparent when they got the timing cover off and found the loose freeze plug inside. They replaced the freeze plug and the timing belt since it got scored a bit by the plug. They did not replace the water pump, saying nothing wrong with it. They test drove it, pressure tested, etc. I'm not sure if I feel better or worse about this car knowing it's a freeze plug and not the pump.
Ok, if you're going to keep it now, then, you know, a little lower, and maybe these...
Not that I'm trying to plant seeds or anything...
i mean with used car prices how they are right now, might as well dump it if you want to.
Wow, freeze plug popped out. Didn't see that coming. I'd dump that thing yesterday.
Plug is right next to the pump... I wonder if someone was careless and whacked / damaged it during the first pump replacement, causing a slight leak and eventual failure?
How does a freeze plug fail unless it freezes or rust away?
That's a ridiculous amount of time to wait for the repair.
Could a freeze plug pop due to overheating? For instance when the previous water pump expired?
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